An observation from my annual holiday card ritual: I didn’t have to scramble around as much this year to track down people’s mailing addresses. My friends have either settled down en masse or have gotten much better at sending out their latest contact info as soon as they’ve moved. Nevertheless, it reminded me of what I think is one of the most compelling applications that Identity Commons will enable: an auto-updating address book. (GF8)

Many of you might claim that these already exist, pointing to sites like Plaxo (which received $8.5 million in second round investment in July 2003). I’m not talking about centralized services that spam you at least once a year. I’m talking about a service that is fully distributed and that is owned and controlled by you, not by some third-party. (GF9)

The Identity Commons technology will make services like these possible, and assuming all goes well, the enabling technologies will be available by mid-2005. Not only is it an interesting enterprise opportunity, it’s a great service for regular schmoes like me who just want to keep their address books updated. (GFA)